Quantum jumps and beyond: do atoms just do it, or do we have to be looking?

          @misc{ scivideos_PIRSA:25100089,
            doi = {10.48660/25100089},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/25100089},
            author = {},
            keywords = {Quantum Foundations},
            language = {en},
            title = {Quantum jumps and beyond: do atoms just do it, or do we have to be looking?},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics},
            year = {2025},
            month = {oct},
            note = {PIRSA:25100089 see, \url{https://scivideos.org/index.php/pirsa/25100089}}
          }
          

Abstract

Quantum jumps pre-date the birth of modern quantum theory 100 years ago. But the modern understanding of these and other quantum stochastic processes emerged only in the early 1990s, via a process of convergence of surprisingly many different streams of research, in experimental and theoretical atomic physics and quantum optics, quantum foundations, mathematical physics, and control theory. Serendipitously, I began my PhD on this topic just as this was happening, so I played a small role in this development. My enduring fascination with the stochastic "unravellings" of the evolution of simple quantum systems also led to the formalisation of EPR-steering, to design experiments (yet to be done) to definitively disprove the idea that atoms undergo quantum jumps (or any other objective stochastic unravelling) independent of our observation.